A former Guatemalan soldier who prosecutors say acknowledged taking
part in a 1982 massacre was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in U.S. prison
for lying on citizenship forms about his military service and role in the
killings.

Gilberto Jordan, 54, received the maximum sentence possible in federal
court in Florida.

Jordan pleaded guilty earlier this year to making false statements on
his 1999 naturalization forms, which enabled him to obtain U.S. citizenship.
That citizenship was revoked and officials said Jordan will be deported
to face prosecution in Guatemala once his prison term is completed.

Jordan could have received just six months behind bars under sentencing
guidelines. But prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge William Zloch to
impose the maximum possible, a 10-year sentence.

They said Jordan admitted to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agents that he participated in the December 1982 massacre in the Guatemalan
village of Dos Erres, including personally throwing an infant down a well.

Investigators say at least 162 people died, many hit with sledgehammers
or shot.

"Mr. Jordan admitted to killing a baby. He then participated in the
killings of countless other men, women and children," said Hillary Davidson,
a U.S. Justice Department senior trial attorney. "He never should have
been allowed to live here peacefully for many years."

Zloch was just as harsh, saying Jordan tried to hide "his background
as a mass murderer." Referring to the 10-year sentence, the judge said:
"Anything less would be totally inadequate as just punishment for this
crime and its accompanying heinous acts."

Jordan insists he did not want to kill anyone at Dos Erres, but was
told if he did not follow orders he could be killed as well, said his attorney
Robin C. Rosen-Evans, an assistant federal public defender.

In brief comments to the judge, Jordan asked in Spanish for forgiveness,
including from survivors and family members of those slain.

"This is an incident that occurred in my life that I never expected
to happen," he said.

Nearly three decades ago in Guatemala, Jordan was a sergeant in an elite
infantry unit known as the "Kaibiles." In 1982, that group was attempting
to wipe out an armed insurgency by guerrillas opposed to the military government
in power.

A decades-long civil war in Guatemala claimed at least 200,000 lives
before it ended in 1996.

Jordan served in the Guatemalan military for two years after the killings,
then in 1985 came to the U.S. illegally, authorities said. He eventually
settled in Boca Raton, Fla., and had worked as a cook at a country club
from 2004 until he was arrested by U.S. agents in May.

Last week, a Guatemalan judge ordered three men to stand trial for the
Dos Erres massacre, and arrest orders have been issued against 14 other
suspects including Jordan. He would face more than 20 years in prison for
each person killed if convicted in Guatemala of murder and crimes against
humanity, Guatemalan authorities said.